Alysha Sewell
News Editor
On Tues, Feb. 8 the Orono alpine ski team competed in the section five meet at Afton Alps. Section five for alpine skiing includes Orono, Mound Westonka, Wayzata, Minnetonka, Waconia, Robbinsdale Armstrong, Maple Grove, Breck, Blake, Hopkins, and Benilde-St.Margaret’s.
The scoring for sections is quite simple. Each participant skis two runs—the runs are reset after every racer has skied the first and the boys and girls switch sides before the second run. Scoring runs off a point system. Each section team is made up of six girls and six boys.
The top four girls and the top four boys from each team’s points are added up for a final score. The top two boys teams and top two girls teams advance to state. The skiers can also qualify for state as individuals. The top ten boys and ten girls that didn’t already qualify in the team category advance to state as well.
This year’s boy’s section team included seniors Johnathan Zilverberg and Andrew Marshall, sophomores Keller Hickok and Woody Hust, and freshman Bradford Morrison and Sam James. The boys team took second in section five and advanced to state. Senior Madeline Wiltgen and junior Katherine Kearney qualified for state as individuals.
“It’s incredible for such a young boys team to qualify for state two years in a row. All of the boys on the team work extremely hard and I can’t wait to see what they accomplish in coming years,” said senior, captain Hannah Timpe.
The state meet was held on Wed, Feb. 16 at Giant’s Ridge in Biwabik, MN which is about four hours north of the Twin Cities.
Similar to the section meet, the state meet is also run on a point system where the faster the skier is, the more points they receive.
“It was awesome and such an accomplishment!” stated Kearney about competing at state. The boy’s team took fourth place at the state meet, Wiltgen took fourth place overall for the girls, Kearney took 18th, and Zilverberg took 12th.
“I am proud of all the racers. The drive of John, Keller, Bradford, Woody, and Sam to ski their best was remarkable and the intensity was contagious. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as well as they could have. We had a couple of slip-ups, but we still managed to push and make 4th place overall,” explained Marshall, “I skied well and, honestly, my two runs at state were my favorite runs of the entire season. The state team is a extremely talented group and I am honored to have been a part of it.”
